Read Between the Commas
by Procrastinating Penguin
Summary: /"A lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous." Kiss. KA //For alkyone//


**Read Between the Commas**

_Disclaimer: Don't own._

_A/n: This is for the lovely __**alkyone**__, who has spoiled this penguin with all her wonderful cakes and cookies. Not that the penguin is complaining... nope. Not at all. *griiiins and runs away*_

Nakamori Aoko hated Kuroba Kaito.

He was - explicit words aside - a jerk. He flipped her skirt, constantly nicked her favourite food from _her _bento, teased her about her father, proclaimed his undying admiration for KID whenever she wandered into earshot, flipped her skirt, teased about the pattern of her underwear, and then flipped her skirt some more.

Jerk. _Major_ Jerk.

It was unfair how Kaito always got the upper hand. The teacher loved him, so his notes (always folded into a crane with either two oddly-shaped wings or one really, really bent one) sailed freely into the air and landed right in her hair class after class without fail. Ever. And no matter how hard Aoko tried to keep up, he ducked her mop swipes with such skill that he leapt over chairs and desks and filing cabinets and teachers (and yes, even the principal once, just as he had crouched down to tie his shoelaces - the boy hopped right over the balding man) without even so much as a blink of an eye, while she huffed and puffed, stumbling more than fifty paces behind. And that grin. The all-too-familiar "kitty-just-ate-the-canary-what-are-_you-_going-to-do-about-it" grin that always light a new fire under her. As if being exempt from the Law of Gravity wasn't enough, he had to rub her face in it.

_"Did something happen?"_

It was late afternoon. The last bell of the day had rung and everyone left a good half an hour ago. Kaito was slouched over his desk, his shock of dark hair spilling carelessly over the cradle of his arms. Aoko had been jabbing him with the back of her pen since fourth period, and not once had the boy budged. Annoyed, she took the cap off and poked him with the pointy end, leaving a wonderful collage of dark red dots on the back of his white shirt. Either Kaito had fallen into a deep sleep, or that day's lecture had really bored the poor thing into a coma. Doubting the former (because, really, the stars seemed to be the one subject intricate enough to capture his otherwise scattered attention), Aoko decided that her friend was simply really, really tired. Probably from being such a big jerk all the time.

"Kaito. _Kaito_."

He didn't stir. Resting her book bag on a nearby desk, Aoko carefully stepped over to the boy and touched him on the shoulder. "Kaito, we need to go."

"_Aoko_."

The sound of Kaito's voice in the otherwise empty room startled her. Aoko jumped, tottering back instinctively - not looking where she was and her shin collided with a nearby chair. Hard. Stifling a curse, she hastily reached out and clutched at her smarting leg. Pained tears blurred her vision. _Damn it. _"Kaito - " she called out again, this time louder and through gritted teeth.

"Mmmmph...." A rustle of cloth, and Kaito shifted so that a good part of his face was exposed. A lock of hair tumbled right onto his nose. He was facing her now, one cheek pressed against the arm. Eyes closed. Lashes still. (Was that a flutter she saw?) Calm, even breaths.

He was still asleep.

Blinking back tears, Aoko hobbled forward so that she was right beside him. For a second she considered taking Kaito by the shoulders and simply shake him awake. But already she could feel her anger ebbing away as her eyes fell upon his face. Kaito looked like a little boy asleep - a seven-year-old instead of a seventeen-year-old. She peered closer. His hair had grown longer. (Had his eyelashes always been that dark?) It had been a while since she had last taken a good look at Kaito. Ever since they graduated from junior to senior high, there was this new distance between them. They still walked home together, but she found themselves lapsing more and more into awkward silences where she didn't know what to say, and he seemed content to just gaze at the air - a stray cat, a telephone pole, pebbles on the ground - anything but her. Kaito no longer climbed through her window in the middle of the night, shrugging off her groggy glares, his eyes alit as he shared his newest "discovery". (Once, he gave her a rose that was supposedly to be from KID himself. As if she would actually want _that._) Other than the random pranks he pulled at school and the skirt-flipping, they didn't hang out so much anymore. Keiko had noted it as a normal part of friendship. "People grow apart," the bespectacled girl observed, nodding sympathetically.

"_Ao...ko.._."

Kaito was murmuring in his sleep. Aoko leaned in closer, trying to catch what he was saying.

"_Aoko_... hmm... pink..."

Aoko felt the blood race to her face. Kaito had flipped her skirt that morning, and pink just so happened to be the colour of her underwear. She gritted her teeth. Damn it. Out of _all_ the things he could dream about -

"Mmmmmph... ko... _Aoko_."

He was dreaming about _her._

Idiot, Aoko thought. Her cheeks burnt.

_"Aoko-chan, did you and Kaito have a fight or something?"_

_"Hm? No, why?"_

_"Huh. Well, that's funny. I haven't seen you guys hang out together in ages. I thought he did something stupid again."_

Everyone noticed.

"Well, Kaito," Aoko whispered softly. "What do you think? What stupid thing _did _you do this time?"

No reply. The late afternoon sun was basking the whole room in a warm, lazy glow of orange - the colour of overrippened, soft flesh of yams. The colour of another day slipping away. Gently brushing away the stray hair that had fallen across his eyes, Aoko leaned in.

And kissed him.

_"Aoko-chan, are you and Kuroba-kun going out or what?"_

_"Wh-what? Of course not! We're just, you know, friends. And neighbours. We grew up together. So, we're, um, friends."_

_"Oh, good." A relieved sigh. "I guess I have a chance then, don't I? You know, the amusement park opened last Sunday. I think I'll ask Kuroba-kun out on a date -"_

_"_No!_"_

_"...Excuse me?" Bewildered look._

_"Er, I mean. Y-you can't."_

_"Why? Is he going out with somebody else?"_

_"Well... no. It's just, um, h-he's an idiot."_

Slowly, Aoko drew away from the boy, the sweetness of his breath still lingering on her lips.

He was still asleep.

"Jerk," Aoko murmured, touching her lips. Blushing fiercely.

_Her _jerk.


End file.
